Star Witness

Star Witness is about a man on trial for murder - a man recognized as one of the film industry's most successful writer-directors, a man of mythic drive and talent, and someone who looks more guilty with every passing witness. Attorney Joseph Antonelli - suave, philosophical, fearless, and cagey - takes up the director's defense for the murder of an equally famous young woman. Then the defendant shows Antonelli the script he has been working on for years, a script he considers his masterpiece: the story of a man's rags-to-riches climb to the top that recalls Orson Welles's Citizen Kane, and that includes a visionary film director as its hero. In this fascinating story-within-a-story, the accused reveals his version of the tragedy, the secrets of his relationship with the deceased, and the ominous events that led to her death. In it we see how art can imitate life - and unmask a killer even the court can't find.